I can't breathe

For the inability to breathe, see asphyxia and choking. For other uses, see I Can't Breathe (disambiguation).

Justice for All March/National March Against Police Violence, Washington, D.C., December 2014

"I can't breathe" is a slogan associated with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. The phrase is derived from the words of Eric Garner and George Floyd, two African-American men who died of asphyxiation during their arrests in 2014 and 2020, respectively, as a result of excessive force by primarily white police officers. Another African American man, Manuel Ellis, also uttered the words "I can't breathe" shortly before he died during a police encounter.

The phrase is used in protest against police brutality in the United States.

Eric Garner

Further information: Death of Eric Garner

The phrase originated in the July 2014 death of Eric Garner, who was put into a chokehold by a New York City Police Department officer. A video of Garner restrained by multiple officers showed him saying "I can't breathe" 11 times before losing consciousness.  Following the December 2014 acquittal of the officer who put Garner into a chokehold, the slogan experienced a dramatic increase in popularity amid widespread protests. The hashtag "#ICantBreathe" was tweeted over 1.3 million times that month, aided by expressions of solidarity from amateur and professional athletes.

Berlin, Massachusetts, December 2014

The first display from athletes was when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball team wore t-shirts emblazoned with "I can't breathe" during a December 13 game warm-up. Athletes from both the National Football League and National Basketball Association, notably LeBron James, wore clothing printed with "I can't breathe." Following criticism of James, President Barack Obama came to his defense, stating "I think LeBron did the right thing...We forget the role that Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe and Bill Russell played in raising consciousness." In late December, officials from the Fort Bragg Unified School District in Mendocino, California banned athletes from wearing "I can't breathe" t-shirts before a three-day high school basketball tournament, before reversing themselves. The American Civil Liberties Union wrote a letter in support of the students.

The cast of the movie Selma wore "I can't breathe" shirts to their December premiere. Actor David Oyelowo recounts that members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences complained to movie producers and stated that in retaliation they would not vote for Selma to receive Oscars. Oyelowo states, "It's part of why that film didn't get everything that people think it should've got and it birthed #OscarsSoWhite."

Fred Shapiro, the editor of The Yale Book of Quotations, chose "I can't breathe" as the most notable quote of 2014. Shapiro expressed that it was not a slogan of only that moment, but "a phrase with real and lasting impact". Professor Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Reverend Jesse Jackson wrote in a December 2014 opinion piece that the phrase "has become a slogan for the people who have taken to social media and the streets to protest the killing of unarmed African Americans, challenging a system that fails to indict and calling for greater equality."

Linguist Ben Zimmer compared it to similar slogans such as "Hands up, don't shoot", which originated in the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, and the older "No justice, no peace". Zimmer called it "a peculiarly powerful rallying cry", and noted, "to intone the words 'I can't breathe,' surrounded by thousands of others doing the same, is an act of intense empathy and solidarity. The empathy comes from momentarily stepping into the persona of Eric Garner at that instant the life was being choked out of him." Zimmer noted that, in the variant "We can't breathe", the phrase becomes directed towards social change and more metaphorical. Phrases seen on protests signs such as "Justice can't breathe" and "Our democracy can't breathe" remove the meaning entirely outside of the physical circumstances of Garner's death.

Joshua D. Rothman of the University of Alabama noted that fashion statements such as the "I can't breathe" t-shirts are "easily and often dismissed by opponents as a cheap gesture or a stunt." However, analyzing the fashion craze in the late 18th and early 19th century for the "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" cameos made by Josiah Wedgwood for bracelets and hair ornaments, and subsequent incorporation of the kneeling slave image into many different types of products as the most widely used symbol of the American abolitionist movement, Rothman asserted that "we ought not underestimate fashion's value and significance for building momentum and visibility for a political cause."

In October 2016, The New York Times reported the death of a 17-year-old boy who was smothered by staff at a treatment center for troubled youth. Noting that the boy had yelled, "Get off me, I can't breathe" before going silent, the Times drew an explicit parallel to Eric Garner.

Counter-reaction

Supporters of the New York City Police Department marched on December 19, 2014 in black hoodies emblazoned with "I can breathe, thanks to the NYPD" and shouted "Don't resist arrest!" at counter-protesters. Separately, shirts produced and sold online by Jason Barthel, an police officer in Mishawaka, Indiana, that stated, "Breathe Easy: Don't break the law" drew criticism. Barthel stated, "When you break the law, unfortunately there's going to be consequences, and some of them aren't going to be pretty." Members of the city council of South Bend, Indiana asked then-mayor and future-U.S. presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg for cooperation in banning the city from future contracts with Barthel's uniform business. Buttigieg political opponent Henry Davis Jr. described the response: "He refused to touch it. And when he touched it, he agreed with both sides."

Manuel Ellis

Further information: Death of Manuel Ellis

In March 2020, Manuel Ellis was pacified by police in Tacoma, Washington. When the police officers placed their weight on top of Ellis, he pleaded "I can't breathe". He died shortly afterwards from positional asphyxia, i.e. by preventing the lungs from expanding within the chest cavity (cf. peine forte et dure). The Pierce County medical examiner subsequently ruled that Ellis' death was a homicide, and the officers involved were placed on administrative leave.

George Floyd

Minneapolis, May 28, 2020

Further information: Killing of George Floyd and George Floyd protests

In May 2020, Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd by kneeling on the back of his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Spectator video of the incident showed Floyd saying "I can't breathe" multiple times. Despite his pleas, as well as a bystander exclaiming that the officer was preventing Floyd from breathing, Chauvin continued the restraint for two minutes and 53 seconds after Floyd became unresponsive, while three other officers watched. "I can't breathe" became a rallying cry for the subsequent nationwide protests. Protestors have adopted it as a chant. In his first public speech on George Floyd's death and protests on June 2, presidential candidate Joe Biden began with, "I can't breathe. I can't breathe. George Floyd's last words. But they didn't die with him. They're still being heard. They're echoing across this nation." That same day, ViacomCBS-owned networks paused their programming to show a black screen for eight minutes and 46 seconds with the words "I can't breathe" displayed.

See also

• I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street, a 2017 book by Matt Taibbi about Garner's death
• Hands up, don't shoot
• No justice, no peace
• "How Long, Not Long"
• "We Shall Overcome"
• Can't we all just get along?
• Don't tase me, bro!
• List of protests in the United States
• Lists of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States